Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) streaming is a widely used form of multimedia delivery of Internet video. HTTP-based multimedia delivery provides reliability and deployment simplicity due to the broad adoption of both HTTP and its underlying Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocols. Additionally, HTTP-based multimedia delivery enables easy and effortless streaming services by avoiding network address translation (NAT) and firewall traversal issues. HTTP-based streaming also provides the ability to use standard HTTP servers and caches instead of specialized streaming servers and has better scalability due to minimal state information on the server side. In one example, HTTP streaming may occur between a node (e.g., a transmission station) and a wireless device (e.g., a mobile device). Alternatively, HTTP streaming may occur between the node and a wired device (e.g., a desktop computer).
Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between the node and the wireless device. Some wireless devices communicate using orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) in a downlink (DL) transmission and single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in an uplink (UL) transmission. Standards and protocols that use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) for signal transmission include the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) (e.g. Release 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard (e.g., 802.16e, 802.16m), which is commonly known to industry groups as WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access), and the IEEE 802.11 standard (e.g. 802.11-2012, 802.11 ac, or 802.11 ad), which is commonly known to industry groups as WiFi.
In 3GPP radio access network (RAN) LTE systems, the node can be a combination of Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node Bs (also commonly denoted as evolved Node Bs, enhanced Node Bs, eNodeBs, or eNBs) and Radio Network Controllers (RNCs), which communicates with the wireless device, known as a user equipment (UE). The downlink (DL) transmission can be a communication from the node (e.g., eNodeB) to the wireless device (e.g., UE), and the uplink (UL) transmission can be a communication from the wireless device to the node.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.